United States President Donald Trump has announced plans to convene
a face-to-face summit between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his latest bid to end
Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Trump’s proposal on Monday came as he hosted Zelenskyy and top
European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and UK
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, at the White House for high-stakes talks on
ending the conflict, which has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of
Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump said he had begun arrangements for the summit after speaking with
Putin by phone, and that he would hold a trilateral meeting with his
Russian and Ukrainian counterparts following their two-way meeting.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and NATO Secretary-
General Mark Rutte separately confirmed that Putin had agreed to the
bilateral meeting, but did not specify a date or location.
On the other hand, Zelenskyy, who described his meeting with Trump as a
very good conversation, told news reporters that he was ready to meet the
Russian leader one-on-one.
Moscow did not immediately confirm that it had agreed to a summit, but
Russia’s state-run TASS news agency cited presidential aide Yuri
Ushakov as saying that Putin and Trump spoke in favour of continuing
direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
